As we witness the end of Moammar Gadhafi's four decades of brutal rule in Libya, the one thing about which nobody worries is whether his eventual replacements can be trusted with Libya's nuclear programs and major weapons. The reason is simple: Libya no longer can boast those frightening possessions. And the reason for that lack of deadly capacity is clear: Gadhafi gave up his nuclear program and weapons specifically in response to the success of the international effort in toppling Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

In the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton rightly appealed to "experience, the least fallible guide of human opinions." Today, alas, large swaths of the American public denigrate experience as a qualification for government leadership. Worse, many Americans seem to treat governmental veterans as inherently suspect, as if experience is not only not a virtue but actually a vice. This attitude, which is now manifested in several websites, is a derailment of the American tradition, an affront to reason, and a recipe for trouble.Continue Reading

In the wake of the debt-ceiling battles of the past few months, political liberals have made a habit of referring to Tea Party groups as "hostage takers" or, far worse, a "Taliban wing," a "Hezbollah faction," or just simply "terrorists." The comparison, of course, is highly offensive, but on one level it does succeed (unfairly) in marginalizing what is otherwise an admirable re-engagement of ordinary Americans in civic life. Most people, of course, recognize that it's ludicrous to compare inflexible-but-peaceful negotiating stances by Tea Partiers with the violent tactics of terrorists. Yet the smear job succeeds somewhat in leaving behind the impression that Tea Party goals are somehow extremist or radical.

Most Americans are understandably upset about the ugly spectacle of the recent weeks of debt-ceiling negotiations in Congress. In many respects, though, James Madison and his fellow American founders deliberately designed our government to work in just such a laborious fashion. Tea partiers on the right, and those on the left like Barack Obama who openly want to change the very nature of the American system, both should remember that governmental incrementalism is a virtue.